Mono Monday: Steady

Making sourdough bread is a slow and steady process.

I keep the main starter in the fridge and feed her once a week. She has been christened Beryl … Feeding her involves taking half away and replacing that same weight with luke warm water and plain white flour. Once fed and watered, I put her back into the fridge.

The other half I also feed and water, then leave the jar standing out on the kitchen counter to activate. Once it’s warmed up, it starts to bubble and rise. I leave it then until the next day, when I repeat the feed process and today I kept an eye on the bubbling. When the starter had doubled in size, I mixed it with flour, water, salt and honey.

After a good mixing, I covered it and left it to rise for 30 mins. It doesn’t rise as fast as dough with yeast, but should be fairly elastic. Then I take the edges and stretch and fold the dough over itself, turning the bowl 90° and repeating this 8 times.

That’s the stage the dough is at in the top picture. Now it’s sitting in the kitchen, where I’m leaving it to rise for 2 or 3 hours before popping it into the fridge for the night. This slows down the rise and apparently helps to break down the gluten.

Tomorrow I’ll take it out again and hopefully the dough will rise nicely. Once it’s reached a decent size, I’ll bake it …. Fingers crossed I’ll have a decent blip tomorrow!